The present invention relates to an external articulation mechanism for the pivotable holding of the backrest of a vehicle seat on a part that is secured to the vehicle, wherein a pivot member is secured to the backrest to allow pivoting thereof, with the pivot member being insertable into a receiving element that is to be secured to the vehicle and has a support opening that is open on one side, wherein the pivot member can be arrested in position in the receiving element by means of an arresting mechanism that extends over the open side of the support opening and is pivotable between a release position and an arresting position, with an introduction slot for the pivot member being formed in the receiving element and leading into the support opening.
An external articulation mechanism having similar features is described in DE 101 33 707 B4. The pivot member is embodied as a bolt that is mounted on the backrest structure, and that during the assembly of the backrest, i.e. the vehicle seat, is pressed into the introduction slot of the receiving element. For arresting the bolt in the receiving element, disposed on the receiving element is a rotatable blocking mechanism having a hook that extends over the bolt that is disposed in the support opening of the receiving element. The blocking mechanism has formed thereon an extension and, when the bolt is introduced into the introduction slot that leads into the support opening, the blocking mechanism, by pressing upon its extension, automatically pivots into a blocking position. This enables a sort of locking mounting of the backrest on the receiving element.
Since when the bolt or pivot element is disposed in the support opening of the receiving element it is not possible to prevent a certain amount of play between the pivot element and the receiving element, the known design of the external articulation mechanism has the drawback that an undesired generation of noise occurs due to vibrations during operation of the motor vehicle.
DE 196 01 367 A1 furthermore discloses a support for a backrest of a vehicle seat that is pivotably disposed on the support, whereby a pin that is disposed laterally of the backseat is held in an upwardly open support opening of the support by means of an elastically deformable anchoring element that is disposed on the pin.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to largely avoid the occurrence of support noises with an external articulation mechanism of the aforementioned general type having a backrest mounted thereon.